How far is too far gone with St. augustine

projectpete19 – posted 29 August 2007 09:16

Hello,

I had chinch bugs attack my grass when i went on vacation so they had two weeks of heaven eating my roots without me knowing!

In some spots I see the roots and they are brown and I also see the sand underneath. Is this a lost cause or is there a way for st. augustine to grow back.

I sprayed many times and the chinch bugs are finally not attacking the grass anymore.

Also, I live in central florida and the earth my house is built on is pure sand. I can dig down a foot and it looks like i am at the beach. Is this ok for st. augustine to grow in?

hankhill – posted 05 September 2007 01:06

Cinch bugs don’t eat the roots; they eat theblades. Grubs attack the roots. Why dothink you have chinch bugs? Did you actuallysee them?

The problem with sand is water rentention.You may have to water more often than someonewith clay soil. Sounds like a layer of topsoilshould have been put down.

projectpete19 – posted 06 September 2007 12:26

i had a pro come out and he said i had them. i also spread apart the blades and i saw a little black bug with white on its back, that is a chinch bug right?

so would st augustine grow back or once it is gone it is gone?

seed – posted 06 September 2007 17:04

This sounds like a southern chinch bug if it was about 1/6 of an inch long.https://turfgrass.com/pics/pics05.html

Chinch bugs cause no visible physical marks, that is, no chewing, munching, or scraping. They feed by sucking the sap from the St. Augustinegrass nodes, the bases of the leaf sheaths, and sometimes from the ends of leaf blades using a stylet like a mosquito. They have been called “grass vampires”.

The clearest symptom of chinch bug infestation is blotches of totally dead grass with a yellowish-orange border where the number of chinch bugs is greatest and probably the feeding is heaviest. The dead areas may be noticed when they are a few feet in diameter, but in a few weeks they will expand until the entire lawn is dead unless there is major change in the weather or unless they are sprayed with insecticide.https://turfgrass.com/pics/pics18.html

Although chinch bugs are entirely aboveground dwellers, they cause brown dying grass roots before the leaves turn yellow. Similar to a mosquito, it seems reasonable that, while it feeds, the chinch bug may be injecting the grass plant with a poison. The amount of sap that is withdrawn by a population of chinch bugs is too small to explain the total death of the grass.

St. Augustinegrass has no belowground nodes, therefore whatever you see as dead above the ground is totally dead, and will not recover. Maybe, if there is some green in the runners they will sprout new runners, but you will know this within three weeks.

Commonly there will be some patches of recovery, but the St. Augustinegrass runners or stolons have to bust their way through the dead grass, which can take several months, and it might be better to resod the dead areas.

Phil

projectpete19 – posted 07 September 2007 07:13

that second image you posted is exactly how my front yard looks. i guess i am screwed and i will have to resod. DAMN!

projectpete19 – posted 07 September 2007 07:14

i live in central florida, do you know how much area one pallet of sod will cover?

saltcedar – posted 09 September 2007 19:02

1 pallet covers 400 sq ft.

HTH

Alex_in_FL – posted 20 October 2007 12:49

If you chose not to resod, then you need to rake all the dead grass. St Augustine (especially Floratam) does not like to grow atop dead grass.